The Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) published a study in August 2012 titled "Drivers and Actors in Large-scale Farmland Acquisitions in Sudan." The author is Martin Keulertz, a researcher at King's College London.
The study focuses as much on water as land. The study concludes: "Whether or not a hidden agenda is behind 'land grabs', the paper has illustrated that water resources are at the heart of investors' minds."
Click here to read the study.